Supporting Key Stage 2 and 3 Dyslexic Pupils, their Teachers and Support Staff

The Dragonfly Worksheets

Sally Raymond

• Publisher: Routledge
• Year: 2014
• Print ISBN:
  9781138774612
• eBook ISBN:
  9781317617624
• Topic: Education
• Subtopic: Education General

'I have found Sally Raymond's worksheets ideally suited for use with pupils in need of focussed literacy development materials. They find them varied and accessible with opportunities to include personal interests and topics.

I use them to match specific learning needs to activities which introduce, explain, engage and assess individual targets and skills.'

Julia Smith B.Ed. SpLD APC (Patoss) - dyslexia assessor and tutor

This A4 resource book provides all the materials required to follow structured programmes of learning support for dyslexic pupils. Created by Sally Raymond, an experienced teacher of dyslexic pupils, this resource provides a wide variety of adaptable worksheets with lots of teaching advice and supportive guidance.

The worksheets:

• are fully adaptable to meet the needs of different pupils
• support Department of Education recommendations and Ofsted advice and guidance
• encourage cross-curricula support and interventions to promote maximum access to a wide range of topics
• use varied, enjoyable, applications including games, quizzes and novel challenges designed to engage and stimulate thinking and learning
• develop the knowledge and skills of practitioners helping them identify and monitor progress and needs

Also available by Sally Raymond:

Extending Support for Key Stage 2 and 3 Dyslexic Pupils, their Teachers and Support Staff: The Dragonfly Games 978-1-13-877460-5

Spelling Rules, Riddles and Remedies 978-0-415-71000-8

The Dragonfly Worksheets

Worksheet A
Single-word Reading and Comprehension

Teaching advice

Single-word reading exercises employ and develop word decoding skills. The element of contextual guesswork is removed, but by categorising words comprehension is encouraged.

Dyslexic children have weak word-decoding skills. They often exhibit weaknesses associating words through meaning, reducing their reading, compositional skills, word-finding abilities and expression. Variations of Worksheet A extend proficiency.

Worksheet A also practises kinesthetic application (drawing lines), along with short-term visual and semantic memory skills.

In class

Read through batches of words. Support decoding skills by encouraging segmentation of words such as ‘policeman’. Note the spelling patterns of words such as ‘ice’ (soft c), double consonants in ‘kitten’, ‘curry’ and ‘swimming’ but not ‘paper’, and highlight the spelling of ‘piece’ (if ‘ie/ei’ rule has been covered). ‘Pleasant’ is a sight word as its pronunciation does not match letter-to-sound rules, ‘unpleasant’ makes use of the prefix ‘un-’ in order to denote inverted meaning. Identify areas of difficulty.

Note that ‘swimming pool’ can be assigned to both ‘child’ and ‘adult’.

Encourage pupil(s) to put words into meaningful sentences to ensure comprehension. Ensure that the applicational instructions are understood. Review the completed exercise in the following lesson.

Worksheet B
Matching Spellings

Teaching advice

Spelling by analogy helps to develop letter-to-sound patterns. This worksheet helps the pupil to focus on the groups of letters responsible for making up different sounds. It also provides reading experience, exercising reading comprehension skills.

By analysing letter-to-sound relationships, pupils are encouraged to use this approach when faced with an unknown spelling rather than attempting a visual recreation, which is much harder for the reader to decode; for example, ‘weard’ is easier to decode than ‘wird’. Almost all dyslexics face difficulties with spelling so it is necessary to equip them with useful tactics to fall back on.

Letter-to-sound patterns also support reading decoding skills.

In class

Read the instructions together (reading instructions is an important exercise that many dyslexic pupils miss out in favour of guesswork). Read through the key sentence. Analyse words such as ‘cried’, discussing the interaction of different letters. Then read the following sentences, ensuring that the meaning is understood, and allow the pupil to speak a word to fill each space that shares a letter-to-sound pattern found within the key sentence. Remind the pupil of their need to draw a line (freehand) between words as they complete the worksheet unaided at home. When the sheet is reviewed at the next lesson, a failure to draw lines illustrates their failure to read/remember instructions.

Worksheet B
Matching Spellings

Adaptive possibilities

By analysing pupils’ spelling errors, weaknesses in their spelling vocabulary can be strengthened through application.

Familiarise pupils with novel terminology by using material from mainstream curriculum topics that are being covered....

Table of contents

• Cover Page
• Half Title Page
• Title Page
• Copyright Page
• Contents
• Summary of Application
• Introduction
• Meeting the needs of dyslexic pupils
• Support Throughout the Curriculum
• Processing Weaknesses Found Within the Dyslexic Profile
• Organisation of Delivery
• The Dragonfly Worksheets
• Index Which Dragonfly Worksheet?